Victoria Baker
Encyclopedia
Victoria Baker is a British soprano
.
She began her career as a child actress with supporting and lead roles on British Television for the BBC
and Thames Television
. She subsequently began her vocal training at some of the finest institutions in London, Paris and New York. She has performed various leading soprano roles in operas as well as at Carnegie Hall
in New York City. However, she also performs in crossover music, commonly known as Popera.
in Hampstead
, just Northwest of Central London. Born over two months prematurely she would have died were it not for the expertise of Dr. Yehudi Gordon, London's Baby Guru, renowned for easing celebrity mums from Cate Blanchett
to Kate Moss
into motherhood.
Her love of music began at an early age when at the age of three she asked to learn how to play the piano. After winning 10 Gold Medals at the North London Music Festival Victoria was accepted to the Yehudi Menuhin School
, however, Victoria declined the invitation as the school did not have a vocal arts program and her true passion was singing and Opera in particular. Victoria's singing career began when she was 7 years old. She auditioned for a London Radio Program, along with hundreds of other young girls. She sang "London Bridge" and the casting director sent the other girls home and chose Victoria.
She also appeared on the Thames Television
series French Fields
. Whilst working on a variety of film and TV roles from a stint on BBC's Playdays
to the lead in the feature film ‘How's Business’ premiered by HRH The Prince Edward
at Odeon Leicester Square
, she was represented by the Sylvia Young
Agency & Drama School. Through Young, Victoria met Jacqueline Stoker, Drama and Elocution coach. Stoker urged Victoria to enter the LAMDA London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art Examinations, all of which Victoria passed with Distinction.
in NY on a vocal scholarship. At this time she entered countless singing competitions, winning first prize and singing for and taken under the tutelage of Frederica von Stade
.
Her opera roles include Susannah from Marriage of Figaro, Mimi from La bohème
, Nanetta from Falstaff
, Loretta from Gianni Schicchi
, Guiditta from Franz Lehár's Guiditta, Zerlina from Don Giovanni
, Sophie from Werther
amongst others.
Victoria's early forays upon the NY public have included engagements at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall
, Alice Tully Hall
, Merkin Concert Hall
and Bruno Walter Auditorium. In 2006 she performed for the Princess Grace Foundation and was given a royal invitation to sing at the Palace in Monaco
and for Queen Noor in Jordan. Most recently, Victoria's singing was featured on the French TF1
program Sept a Huit. In April 2008 she was invited to sing for Henry Kissinger
in New York.
In 2006 Victoria published her first book In Search of Lost Love. The book is about the love lives of opera composers.
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
.
She began her career as a child actress with supporting and lead roles on British Television for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
. She subsequently began her vocal training at some of the finest institutions in London, Paris and New York. She has performed various leading soprano roles in operas as well as at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
in New York City. However, she also performs in crossover music, commonly known as Popera.
Early life
She was born at the Royal Free HospitalRoyal Free Hospital
The Royal Free Hospital is a major teaching hospital in Hampstead, London, England and part of the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust....
in Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
, just Northwest of Central London. Born over two months prematurely she would have died were it not for the expertise of Dr. Yehudi Gordon, London's Baby Guru, renowned for easing celebrity mums from Cate Blanchett
Cate Blanchett
Catherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett is an Australian actress. She came to international attention for her role as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 biopic film Elizabeth, for which she won British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Golden Globe Awards, and earned her first Academy Award...
to Kate Moss
Kate Moss
Kate Moss is an English model. Moss is known for her waifish figure and popularising the heroin chic look in the 1990s. She is also known for her controversial private life, high profile relationships, party lifestyle, and drug use. Moss changed the look of modelling and started a global debate on...
into motherhood.
Her love of music began at an early age when at the age of three she asked to learn how to play the piano. After winning 10 Gold Medals at the North London Music Festival Victoria was accepted to the Yehudi Menuhin School
Yehudi Menuhin School
The Yehudi Menuhin School is a specialist music school in Surrey, England. It was founded in 1963 by the violinist Yehudi Menuhin.The School also gives pupils the best musical education any specialist schools can with a number of internationally main teachers, Simon Fischer , Natalya Boyarskaya ,...
, however, Victoria declined the invitation as the school did not have a vocal arts program and her true passion was singing and Opera in particular. Victoria's singing career began when she was 7 years old. She auditioned for a London Radio Program, along with hundreds of other young girls. She sang "London Bridge" and the casting director sent the other girls home and chose Victoria.
She also appeared on the Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
series French Fields
French Fields
French Fields is a British situation comedy. It ran for 19 episodes from 1989-1991. It was written by John T. Chapman and Ian Davidson and was produced by Thames Television for ITV....
. Whilst working on a variety of film and TV roles from a stint on BBC's Playdays
Playdays
Playdays was a children's television programme from the United Kingdom. The series ran from 17 October 1988 to 28 March 1997 on Children's BBC , and was aired in reruns until 2003. The show was the successor of Play School, and, like its predecessor, was designed as an educational programme...
to the lead in the feature film ‘How's Business’ premiered by HRH The Prince Edward
Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex KG GCVO is the third son and fourth child of Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh...
at Odeon Leicester Square
Odeon Leicester Square
The Odeon Leicester Square is a cinema which occupies the centre of the eastern side of Leicester Square, London, dominating the square with its huge black polished granite facade and high tower displaying its name. Blue neon outlines the exterior of the building at night. It was built to be the...
, she was represented by the Sylvia Young
Sylvia Young
Sylvia Young OBE is the founder and Principal of Sylvia Young Theatre School in London, UK.-Sylvia Young Theatre School:Young founded her theatre school in 1981 in Drury Lane, London before moving to Rossmore road Marylebone premises in 1983. In 2010 they moved to their current location near...
Agency & Drama School. Through Young, Victoria met Jacqueline Stoker, Drama and Elocution coach. Stoker urged Victoria to enter the LAMDA London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art Examinations, all of which Victoria passed with Distinction.
Development
Victoria was admitted to the Juilliard SchoolJuilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
in NY on a vocal scholarship. At this time she entered countless singing competitions, winning first prize and singing for and taken under the tutelage of Frederica von Stade
Frederica von Stade
Frederica von Stade is an American mezzo-soprano. Born in Somerville, New Jersey, she acquired the nickname "Flicka" in her childhood. Von Stade attended the Mannes College of Music in New York City. She made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 1970 and in 1971 appeared as Cherubino in The...
.
Her opera roles include Susannah from Marriage of Figaro, Mimi from La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
, Nanetta from Falstaff
Falstaff (opera)
Falstaff is an operatic commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. It was Verdi's last opera, written in the composer's ninth decade, and only the second of his 26 operas to be a comedy...
, Loretta from Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...
, Guiditta from Franz Lehár's Guiditta, Zerlina from Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, Sophie from Werther
Werther
Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
amongst others.
Victoria's early forays upon the NY public have included engagements at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
, Alice Tully Hall
Alice Tully Hall
Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. It is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assisted in the construction of the hall...
, Merkin Concert Hall
Merkin Concert Hall
Merkin Concert Hall is a 449-seat concert hall in Manhattan, New York City. The hall, named in honor of Hermann and Ursula Merkin, is part of the Kaufman Center, a complex that includes the Lucy Moses School, a community arts school, and the Special Music School , a New York City public school for...
and Bruno Walter Auditorium. In 2006 she performed for the Princess Grace Foundation and was given a royal invitation to sing at the Palace in Monaco
Monaco
Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...
and for Queen Noor in Jordan. Most recently, Victoria's singing was featured on the French TF1
TF1
TF1 is a national French TV channel, controlled by TF1 Group, whose major share-holder is Bouygues. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network...
program Sept a Huit. In April 2008 she was invited to sing for Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
in New York.
Personal details
Victoria speaks both French and English at home- often starting a sentence in one language and finishing in the other. She has sung in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Russian.In 2006 Victoria published her first book In Search of Lost Love. The book is about the love lives of opera composers.
External links
- http://www.myspace.com/vikyb
- http://mycornerbar.com/profile/VictoriaBaker
- http://www.mymajorcompany.com/Artistes/victoriabaker/
- http://www.victoriabaker.vox.com
- http://www.last.fm/music/Victoria+Baker
- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1226426/
- The Victoria Baker Forum on the eScala Fansite